I can understand why some people have been critical of Fedor's performance. He got subjected to some clean GnP, which hasn't happened often in his career as far as I know, and not recently at all. He got caught by a ramrod straight shot, and his nose got busted up. He did seem to have trouble with Rogers's strength and size. That's the glass half-empty bit done. I watched the fight, and I was blown away by how Fedor handled a man with a THIRTY POUND weight advantage. Let's not forget that the world concluded after Lesnar-Mir II that the size difference was simply too much to make it competitive... the difference in weigh-in weights was less between Lesnar and Mir than it was between Fedor and Rogers. I thought Fedor was brilliant. It's just not possible to always expect that this 230lbs man can win without taking anything in return, of course someone Rogers' size would manage to dish out some punishment within the confines of the cage, and Fedor took his best, then eliminated him in the 2nd round. To those to who say Fedor is now past-prime, or that he was sloppy, I'd say that the magic of Fedor is that he has always got himself into deep water in his big fights, it's the way he just takes victory that makes him special. He was in a similar scrape with Mark Coleman some years ago before he armbarred his way out. I don't know if Fedor could overcome the size disparity to beat Lesnar. I think he would win, but I'm not confident enough to say I know he will do what he has always done and emerge with the win. Lesnar is just such a physical freak that you can't rule him out of anything. But I do know this - Fedor is the GOAT in a historical sense, and his win over Rogers proves he is very much still the number 1 heavyweight and the number 1 p4p fighter in the world. :good
I don't think it's possible to tell if he is past his prime; you can't put on masterpiece performances against unworthy opponents. If he wins in perfect fashion, he was supposed to, anything less and he is exposed. If he fights Barnett we will have a much better read on his primeness if you will.
My gf (who's not high on MMA period) couldn't believe "this is the guy considered the most feared h2h and p4p fighter in the world??" upon her first Emelianenko sighting. It was tough explaining that he had already cleared out the division across multiple organizations, and that he was virtually undefeated, and that even as a shell of his younger self he's still incredibly dangerous. She felt that any good HW boxer (contradiction in terms, right! Hah? :! would handle him (in a real fight). I pointed out that a well-rounded MMA practitioner is better equipped to deal with real-life situations that arise in actual "street' skirmishes (well over 90% that don't end in one-punch KOs go to the ground at some point) and that boxers historically struggle with leg attacks. She said "Well Vitali, surely, with his kickboxing background, could win!". Sort of gave up there. It was either dig up video of prime Fedor or talk in circles.